SPRINGFIELD - Legislators quickly approved a bill last week giving Gov. Pat Quinn more time to prepare his budget speech.

Instead of facing a Feb. 19 deadline, Quinn won't deliver his budget plan to lawmakers until March 26, eight days after the primary election.

Republicans complained that it was all politically motivated and a budget delivered that late in the spring session will create problems as lawmakers try to craft a new spending plan.

Amid that, House Speaker Michael Madigan said the delay isn't a big deal.

"This is not the first time the Legislature has received a request from the governor to delay the budget message," the Chicago Democrat said. "Here in the House, we are not asking for a delay. We are moving forward."

In fact, the House and Senate plan to proceed with budget hearings with their appropriations committees before Quinn delivers his spending plan for the next fiscal year.

"This year it's going to be harder and more work because of the income tax," said Rep. Fred Crespo, D-Hoffman Estates, chairman of the House General Services Appropriations Committee.

The temporary income tax hike passed in 2011, raising the 3 percent personal tax rate to 5 percent, is largely going to expire at the end of this year, which is halfway through the state's 2015 fiscal year. The 5 percent personal income tax rate will drop to 3.75 percent. For now, lawmakers are faced with cobbling together a budget that will include the loss of more than $1 billion in revenue.

Crespo said he's been in touch with House staff and a schedule is being developed for elected officials and state agencies to come to his committee for hearings.

"We're going to start right away," he said. "Based on my experience, it takes a lot of time to drill down and see what their needs are."

Moreover, he said, House budget committees expect to get numbers very soon from the House Revenue Committee that will set out how much they will have available to allocate next year. It's a practice the House has followed for three years.

"Everything is going to be driven by what the revenue number is this year," Crespo said.

Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, wrote a piece last week looking at the budget problems facing the state. The chairman of the House Human Services Appropriations Committee noted that, even without a cut in revenue, some state expenses are expected to increase next year, such as pensions costs, group health insurance for state workers and Medicaid.

Page 2 of 2 - Between the loss of revenue and increased expenses, Harris said, "you can estimate how devastating the impacts will be on elementary and secondary education, human services, higher education, general services and public safety."

The Senate likewise is going to forge ahead on the budget without Quinn's plan, although the body will take a slightly different approach, its appropriations committee chairs said.

Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, said they plan to focus first on budgets for statewide elected officials and state operations that are not under Quinn's control.

"We're going to start with the ones who do their own (budgets). The governor doesn't influence them much," Steans said. "We'll be looking at a lot more detail with the ones the governor does control after the budget address."

Steans also said lawmakers have received governors' budgets later than the end of March, so "we have plenty of time to be working with the governor's budget after that."

Some have speculated Quinn may be diluting the value of his budget plan by waiting so long to deliver it. Neither Steans nor Sen. Dan Kotowski, D-Park Ridge, said that was the case. Kotowski said that is particularly not true because Quinn has said he is working on a budget that looks five years down the road.

"We're completely on board with a five-year budget," Kotowski said. "I think it increases his bigger-picture relevancy. It's something that's never been done in the history of the state."